#fandomspade

[rantingspade]

I know that there is a lot of young people in the mcyt fandom, who have not developed and learned how to pick apart texts and notice specific things in them yet. So, because of recent stuff and the words "boundaries", "rules" and "censorship" being thrown around like candy, here's someone who has these skills (me) going through Millkberrys and Pyroscythes statements.

(TW for death, rape and sa threats, mention of sh and harassment, use of the r-slur)

First off, the actual official definitions of the words:

(The first one is from wikipedia, the other two from the Cambridge dictionary, you can look them up if you'd like full confirmation on the sources.)

(notable, fan works such as fanart, fanfiction and headcanons or shitposts are considered a work of art and/or kind of communication with other fans.)

(notable #2, the ideas people are allowed to express and the certain ideas that are included or supported in this case is the shipping of the creators characters.)

(notable #3, content creators / mcyts are minor celebrities and with that have authority over their fan communitys. If you disagree, feel free to block me, I will not be arguing over this.)

And now, me marking/highligthing things in the statements that fit those definitions/descriptions:

What's a boundary or implies one is marked with green.

What's not a boundary is marked with yellow.

What's a rule or implies a rule is marked with blue.

What's censorship is marked red.

I want it to be noted that the only times boundaries are implied or mentioned by either of them, is the word, regarding that this is for Millkberrys mental health or when the actual act of setting boundaries is dismissed (as a past action or entirely).

This is not to mention Pyroscythes literal thread of harassment and policing people, which has already taken action through other fans putting death and rape threads in peoples ask boxes:

(If any of the victims of the threats want me to take them out of this, feel free to tell me and I will do so!)

Apparently one of Pyroscythes mods claimed on Twitter that it was meant as a joke. However, considering the very serious nature of both the stream segment and his expression as well as the fact that it came from a mod and Pyroscythe has yet to actually say anything on this themself, I'm inclined to not believe it.

Lastly, my opinion on this:

Harassment is never okay and no matter how many times these creators have said in the past that they don't endorse it, reality is looking different right now. You cannot tell your large audience what Pyroscythe has told his and expect it not to listen to you, no matter if it was meant as a joke or not.

This is not a boundary, it is a rule at minimum and censorship at worse. Censorship is rampant right now and fandom spaces are some of the few spaces that allow free expression, trying to take that away is not okay. If you cannot handle seeing ship content of your characters, then you should block people who do make art of it, block the shipping tags and not go out of your way to look for it. You can ask people not to show that art to you, and that is completely valid. It is also completely valid to ban people from Stream chats and discords if they do show it to you. It is not valid to tell people what kind of art they can and cannot create however. And if you can't handle the idea of ship content of your characters existing at all, then maybe you should rethink your career choice as a content creator who focuses on roleplay and character creation.

[rantingspade]

Ok (possibly, depends on how much more I think about this) last post about this tonight.

Whether he meant it as such or not, Pyroscythe called for people to harass shippers, live on a still public stream, to a large audience. He then clarified that he did not meant it as a harassment threat / call for harassment and that he meant his mods banning people from his spaces...which yay! Good! Thank you for the clarification! But why was it said in a fan server? Why was it said 4 days after the initial statement? Why was it not said publicly? Why hasn't anything been said publicly about the statement? Why is the statement that implied harassment is okay, wether that be the intended purpose or not, public, but the clarification is not? (<- genuine questions)

From the person that informed me about the discord statement, Pyroscythe said that "There won’t be witch hunts or targeted harassment - that’s stupid, unreasonable and ineffective." Which is interesting - because targeted harassment is already happening. Would love for them to actually adress the harassment their fans have done in the name of "protecting their boundaries"!

(As clarification: I know there is a mod going around being open to private questions and dms about this, I don't care. I would prefer a public statement about how no harassment of any kind is okay from the actual person that made a harassment thread in the first place, whether intentional or not, and not a mod.)

Remember: Harassment of any kind is not okay, censorship is not okay. And if you disagree: Feel free to block me!

spade out

[rantingspade]

I don't watch flight cause none of my mains are in it but i'm somewhat associated with it [a-lot of the blogs i follow are talking about & i am vampires smp fan] so it is all over my feed and I just need to know what the hell is going on over there. Why is Avid going crash out, wth is the flee [???], wdym tf!Scott is going Elsa like empires 1 and why is there a dragon pissing on an unconscious Legundo.

What is happening over there??? And are you all okay???

[rantingspade]

saw an instagram post that said "when you absolutely despise the ship but the entire fandom drools over it" and I've decided to be brave.

Gempearl. I do not care for Gempearl. I am iffy about their canon dynamic and the things that other people find interesting about them i just find boring and annoying. Ive tried getting into it because it's all over my feed all the time and like my Main is Pearl and Gempearl is by far her most popular ship. But like I just can't find something to really like about them. Like even their dynamic platonically isn't my thing. I think they're both super interesting characters on their own but I do not get the hype around them together no matter how hard I try and I doubt I will ever like them. I don't necessarily despise them, I think that's a strong word, slight distaste is more like it.

And while i'm already feeling brave let's go all in, Scarian. And this one is specifically romantic Scarian. Queerplatonic, platonic or heck familiar Desert Duo? Yeah sure, can be super interesting. especially platonic Desert Duo with aro Grian and Scar/BigB is a dynamic that Ive been rotating in my head lately and I really like that dynamic. Romantic though? Nah. Boring, Cliche and both of them are often so heavily mischaracterised that I just leave a fic the second either of them is depicted to be innocent because like, they are NOT. I'm more neutral feeling towards them but I generally really don't like when the fandom boils down their dynamic to a romance because there's just so much that happens with them and. Idk I find just declaring them romantic the easy way out. [I also find it super annoying that they are literally everywhere, you can't read anything without them being atleast hinted at. Why are they a top ship in the Empires SMP tag. Why are they the top ship in Pearls character tag wth.]

And to add fuel to fire, let's talk about the ranchers. This is more personal and i'm not gonna go into full detail but I really liked them once. They were literally my top ship for some time. Though over the last year I've kinda fallen out of love with them due to a few personal reasons. To make it short: Ive grown a lot more comfortable in my aromantic identity and with the idea that I don't need romance to be happy. I used to ship a lot more than I do now, trying to create happy relationships in hopes that i'd find a dynamic like that, that would "cure" [horrible word for this, Aromanticism is not an illness, there is no cure, because nothing needs to be cured, but that's what I believed] me and make me like everyone else. And well the Ranchers were by far one of the biggest victims of this. I only really shipped them because I wanted someone who would treat me like Tango treats Jimmy and that had to be romantic because of my internalised aphobia and feeling the need to be "fixed" [again bad word for similar reasons]. I wouldn't say I dislike them, but Ive realised that I never actually shipped them and Ive certainly grown more fond of them as a QPR.

The reason I added the Ranchers is because these three are by far the biggest ships in this fan base [among others tbf] and I feel like they keep appearing everywhere and everyone keeps insisting that the dynamics of these [and a lot of other *caugh Vampires Pearl & Cleo caugh*] are romantic and should be. As though there's no other option.

Moral of the story? Not everything has to be romantic and a popular ship doesnt have to be in everything in the fandom ever, it's okay to let other types of dynamics shine for once.

[I want to note that if you ship them, because you genuinely find them interesting as a romantic pairing specifically, i'm not trying to discourage you from that. I'm trying to encourage you to think about why it's specifically romantic and if it's maybe because of the way society has made us think that deep relationships have to be romantic

Also always remember to not put other people down because they like/dislike a ship you have the opposite opinion on.]

[rantingspade]

(TW for mentions of some sensitive topics)

I need the mcyt fan space on Youtube to actually read through people's criticism of the whole "boundary" thing because how come every single person over there is calling us "whiny bitches" who "can't let go of their yaoi" and have to "learn to respect boundaries", while also not addressing the "little birds in all the forests, I have my people who will deal with repeat offenders in ways I deem appropriate" statement (that while apparently privately in a discord server has been addressed but not publicly so it's still out there for everyone to see and see as instruction to harass people) at all. I have also seen people complain that were calling "open discussions" and "reasonable arguments" harassment and "throwing around the term".

And seeing all of that...Do you guys actually read any of our posts?? Like it just sounds like you're listening to everything the creators have to say and don't care to hear us out?? So many of you are acting with so much moral high ground, claiming that it's important to respect creators boundaries. Which yes it is, no one is saying it isnt!! I have not seen a single person under the three major tags of this discussion say anything different! If you have feel free to put it in my ask box or dms, because I would love to see that to have evidence on all the sides!

What Pyroscythe and Millkberry put in place is, by definition, not a boundary, it is a rule at best and censorship at worst. Ihave a whole post about it if you care to see. Actually I would love for mcyt youtube fan community to read it! Because you know it also includes the "open discussions" and "reasonable arguments" (better known as death, sa and rape threats, calling people slurs and telling them to cut themsleves!!) that you claim aren't harassment. Which frankly if you actually looked at our arguments and posts you should absolutely know ARE harassment. And if you don't think so, the block button is right there! Feel free to use it!!

I need you guys to ACTUALLY hear us out and look up the definitions of the words boundary, rule and censorship, before acting like this.

[rantingspade]

sos smp i miss you

[rantingspade]

People who say they are Scott Smajor fans and then proceed to say that he needs to and deserves to die for not 100% balancing mcc teams like okay buddy sure

[rantingspade]

trans fem Goshiki Tsutomu hit send